Teen magician conjures up 12million online fans
A TEENAGE magician is enjoying a meteoric rise to success as the UK’s fastest growing YouTuber.
Dan Rhodes, 18, has more than five million subscribers on the online platform and a further seven million fans on TikTok.
The former Hollingworth Academy Student began learning magic at the age of seven when his uncle taught him card tricks.
Dan, who lives in Shaw, Oldham, with his mum, and Newbold, Rochdale, with his dad, said: “My uncle would teach me card tricks every week.
“He would teach me tricks and I went from there.
“I would read books and watch YouTube videos and I carried on doing that. It’s all thanks to my uncle.” Dan, also a fan of British street magician Dynamo, added: “They all inspired me and I would watch clips on YouTube.
“I feel like everyone has a magic stage and there’s one kid that carries on – the one kid that has no social life.”
Speaking about his success, he said: “It’s crazy.
“People used to ask me how long I had been doing this, and I would say five years, but it’s been 10 now.
“I went professional when I was nine. It is cool. In lockdown everyone was on their phones so it was a good time to post videos and content.
“I was doing it every day and I’ve carried on posting videos.
“I started on Instagram and didn’t have much success there. But TikTok is where it’s got big.
“I reached 1million in a few weeks which was really cool, then I started doing YouTube shorts.
“It’s been really good and I’m really lucky.”
After studying performing arts and media at college, being a magician is now Dan’s fulltime job.
He said: “It feels like yesterday that I left school.
“I specialise in card tricks but I do quite a lot of different tricks.
“I try and do them with random objects too. I wasn’t that difficult for me to learn because I was so into it, but it takes ages to get good. “I enjoyed the process of learning. “You can learn basic tricks with a bit of practise though.
“I do quite a few events in Rochdale
like a few at the town hall. Weddings and things.
“I’ll take anything that comes – I would like to do Penn and Teller, magic shows and TV.